My Creativity Starter Kit

Thursday, 27 August 2009

I'm currently putting together my Creativity Starter Kit. So far I have a slightly huge, cartoonesque pair of wooden knitting needles, a ball of super, super chunky wool, the Stitch and Bitch Handbook by Debbie Stoller (a no-messing guide to the fabulousness of knitting), and a wee treasure I rescued from a nearby house clearance business when I was on an impromptu visit with my friend, Ange, to see what treasures had been unearthed in the local vicinity.

The Creda Housecraft Manual (1958).

It was lying at the bottom of a dusty box and is a piece of social history that I have sat and read with complete pleasure. Did you know it was possible to make an ice-cream snowman complete with little tin foil hat, to decorate your dining table during dinner? I did not.

I also have a copy of The Sunlight Year Book, A Treasury of Useful Information of Value to all Members of the Household, 1898, which I bought in a charity shop when I was a student because the cover was so beautiful. This week I dug it out, blew off the cobwebs, and sat down and read it.

Each year, apparently, Lever Brothers Limited (those people who make our shampoo and clothes detergent) would issue this book as a kind of Victorian Year Book/Almanac. It contains postal information, details of eclipses to enjoy in 1898, instructions on how to read the gas meter, as well as household recipes, details of fashionable people of the time and a story by Conan Doyle (who was becoming famous at the time for his Sherlock Holmes stories.). It is completely fascinating. I will share more later.

In the meantime, I wanted to send out some ripples and a little bit of love by sharing a website with you, in case you find something there that you enjoy. I'm embracing my creativity, and a big part of that for me is how I express myself with clothes (most days, not very well, but I'm going to be putting my back into it now...). I recently became aware of this site http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

The man who developed this blog spends his days walking around different cities photographing the people who cross his path and catch his eye, ordinary folk going about their business, who have been creative with their clothes. His pictures are beautiful. Equal opportunity loveliness...

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